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2012 Trends in the U.S. Hospitality Industry

This article gives a good overview of the trends in the accommodation sector and mentions some examples. They specially focus on the way to calculate and analyze the statistics, moves and amelioration done over the years in the tourism sector. It is interesting and I would add rewarding to find an article which talk about real facts and figures that we covered in class

Even if the innovation is more and more necessary nowadays, there are also others things to take into consideration. For example, the macroeconomic sector has a big impact on how well the accommodation sector goes. These other sectors can influence the occupancy rates. If the producer of bread which provide a hotel higher the prices, then it will also influence the price at which the services are sold and so on. This shows that every action has an impact on something else. Another example could be the loan of the hotel, the price of the oil or even the weather. Even if the weather is unpredictable and that we cannot control it, it might still have a big impact on the accommodation sector.

In New York for example, some companies in the accommodation sector suffer from the terrible natural disaster which happened later on. The oregano destroyed a lot and it will have a negative impact on this destination for a while.

What this article explains is that the accommodation sector is like a chain and that everything is connected. If one piece is damaged, it will also damage the next one in a way.

In the second paragraph, it is written that the U.S. Hospitality sector is influenced a lot on the people travelling for business or pleasure as these people are affected by diverse factors. One of these factor is the policies of the government.

A policy being a plan that the government creates in order that everything goes well means that the tourism and accommodation sectors are not free to do what they want to. For example, there is the travel and accommodation policy, the policy for accommodation staff, etc.

All these policies affect the performance of the economy and therefor the tourists. If people earn less money, they have less money to spend on holidays, so the hotels have less visitors, …

They mentioned many other factors which influence the performance of the hospitality industry such as:

–Consumer confidence and consumer spending. It means that if a tourist is pleased about the services he get, he will be more willing to live the experience a second time. Maybe even spend more money. The value and experience is the key.

– Jobs and the unemployment rate. Take Spain for exemple. As many people are unemployed there are not in a position where they are able to go on holidays.

– Oil prices. As mentioned before, this will have an impact on the price of tickets and transporationt in general. Therefore, people will think twice before spending money on this.

– The U.S. dollar’s strength and other foreign currencies. If it is to costly to buy foreign money, it will not be as affordable to have vacations.

In the following paragraphs, they explained well how some calculations and the statistics in general work. The RevPAR is considered to be a very powerful tool and even the most important metric to make statistics as it give an idea on how much the accommodation sector earned.

The occupancy rate is also mentioned and explained. Some numbers have been given in order to show the evolution from 2009 until today. Predictions have also been done to have an idea of the future results.

You will find attached a representation of the numbers representing the occupancy rate.

In conclusion, this article was not easy to analyse as there are almost only description. However, I found usefull to keep it as it show and reminded me the importance of our courses.